April 21, 2014 - The Concordia Cougars returned to action today, less than 24 hours after having their 20-game win streak ended. The loss did not linger with the team however, as timely hitting and strong pitching led the Cougars to 8-5 and 7-0 wins over the Wisconsin Lutheran Warriors at Neumann Family Fields in Milwaukee.

C.J. Selner (Milwaukee, WI/Milwaukee Lutheran) drew the mound assignment in game one and improved to 4-1 on the season with a strong outing. The southpaw held the Warriors scoreless on five hits through the first six innings while striking out five.

The Cougars opened the scoring in the top of the third on back-to-back doubles by Dan Eichholzer (Elwood, IL/Joliet West) and Carlos Olavarria (Rosemont, IL/East Leyden). One out later, Kyle Huber (Chicago, IL/Lane Tech) went deep to right for a triple as CUC grabbed a 2-0 lead.

Some clutch two-out hitting helped the Cougars extend the lead. With two out in the fifth, Will Polley (River Forest, IL/Oak Park-River Forst) walked and came around on Huber's double to right. The following inning, Eichholzer laced a double to left-center after the first two hitters were retired. Olacarria followed with a single between third and short as Eichholzer scored for a 4-0 lead.

Wisconsin Lutheran's bats came to life in the seventh as the first two hitters reached on hits. After a fly to center for the first out, Garrick Day and Aaron Roeseler drew walks to force in a run and bring reliever Kevin Pawell (Kenosha, WI/Bradford) into the day. Sam Mattheis' two-run single made it a 4-3 game and put the tying and go-ahead runs on base. But Pawell struck out Brett Youngbeck and got Brandon Mantz on an infield pop-up to get the Cougars out of the inning still holding the lead.

As they have much of the season, the Cougars responded to an opponent's score with some offensive fireworks of their own. Singles by Rich Santarelli (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) and Steve Zubrzycki (McHenry, IL/Marian Central Catholic) and a walk to Eichholzer loaded the bases for Olavarria. The Cougars' third baseman battled to a 2-2 count before ripping a pitch to the alley in left-center. The double cleared the bases and put Concordia up 7-3.

Huber led off the ninth with a blast to rightfield for his third homer of the year, leaving him just a single short of the cycle. It appeared that the homer would be mere icing on the cake, but a couple of errors in the bottom of the ninth gave the hosts one last gasp. A base hit by Zach Skog made it an 8-5 game and brought the tying run to the plate. But Steve Cox (Villa Park, IL/Willowbrook) got Ryan Stancl swinging at a third strike to seal the first game of the twinbill.

Freshman Cody Caballero (Lemont, IL/H.S.) was the story of game two, improving to 3-0 on the season with his second strong outing in the last six days. Caballero pitched 7 2/3 innings and combined with Rob Lock (Chicago, IL/St. Ignatius) on a seven-hitter.

The offense gave Caballero all the support he would need in the third inning. Eichholzer drew a one-out walk and scored on Olavarria's double to left. Before the inning was over, Polley and Will Randerson (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly) would add RBI doubles to put Concordia up 3-0. For Randerson, it was part of a 4-5, two-RBI effort in game two.

Another two-out run scored in the fifth inning. Consecutive singles by Polley, Huber and Randerson added up to a 4-0 lead.

Concordia-Chicago wrapped up the win in the eighth inning with a rally that was nearly identical to the eighth inning of game one. Two hits and a walk loaded the bases with two out for Olavarria. This time, Olavarria singled to leftfield to score Santarelli and Colin Bethran (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.), and Eichholzer also scored when the leftfielder overran the ball for an error. The hit by Olavarria gave him eight RBIs for the doubleheader.

The two wins helped Concordia improve to 26-3 overall and 11-1 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. The Cougars will host Wheaton College in a single non-conference game at 3:00 Wednesday afternoon.